Make Your Own Lego Characters

My son’s obsession with Legos started early. In the beginning this meant that he played with the Legos, but only after my husband or I constructed them. When a 4,000 and some piece toy got unwrapped, my husband and I would both quickly offer to put the beast together. We each pretended we were really doing each other a solid by offering ourselves up, such sacrifice. Secretly we both knew that the parent that got to construct the Lego got the golden ticket.

The builder would be allowed to sit for hours in a zen-like paradise where the only thing we had to do was follow directions and experience a Mihlay Csikszentmihalyi –type sense of flow. The other parent however, would be on duty for fetching juice, lunch, snack, dinner, cleaning up the kitchen, laundry and of course, serving as customer service for all our children’s grievances. Sadly for me and my spouse, my son now prefers putting together his own Legos.

Not only has he mastered Lego construction, 8 year old artist Nate took Lego playing to an all new creative level. With the help of The Great Danielle Ash, Nate created an entire Lego land. Starting with writing his own storyline, he then created custom characters for his own animation. They took weeks discussing, writing and building before they had a ball animating the whole thing.

No doubt your kid's received some new Legos for the holidays, or have been given some in the past that are just laying around the house, waiting to be transformed. Show them how to make their own characters and let us know what they create! Remember to be reasonable with your expectations... Danielle is an Emmy-award winning animator.

(Lucky for you, Danielle shows you how to make your own original lego characters below!)

Directions

1. Design ideas for new characters in a sketchbook or idea notebook2. Find lego characters that you don't mind taking apart or painting over3. Paint numbers or letters or designs on the front and back4. Coat with 2 layers of paint if necessary5. Decorate with bits of fabric for capes, costume etc.6. Experiment with sculpey clay- it works great for props or extra parts of the costume- sculpt your shape and then *bake in the oven.7. Add small stickers and tape cut out into shapes or letters add nice details that can be easily removed.8. Arrange your new lego characters in different scenes for animation or just to have fun and play!

* ATTENTION: Sculpey clay is toxic while baking, requires well ventilated area.
** ATTENTION: Testors paint is toxic, be sure to use in a venilated area